Roller doors are known in the art. Such assemblies typically comprise a door-supporting frame that is retained in an installed position by a non-rotating support rod. The door-supporting frame often comprises two or more so-called wheels that are able to rotate about the non-rotating support rod. The material comprising the roller door itself (sometimes referred to as a barrier curtain) is rolled about these wheels when raised to an opened position and unrolled when moving the roller door to a closed position.
A motor typically provides this rotation of the door-supporting frame to cause this movement of the roller door. This, in turn, requires that the output shaft of the motor be somehow mechanically coupled to the door-supporting frame in order to cause the desired rotation. Numerous approaches are known in this regard. Unfortunately, while often satisfactory for some limited number of application settings, each such design often suffers one or more deficiencies as well. Points of concern can relate, for example, to ease or difficulty of installation, ease or difficulty of maintenance, relative cost, overall efficacy, and so forth.
As but one example in these regards, once installed, many existing approaches that employ a sprocket to mechanically couple the motor to the door-supporting frame can require that the non-rotating support rod be disconnected from an installed position. This can be troublesome, time consuming, and potentially even dangerous. This, in turn, can increase the requisite level of skill required for the installer and this can contribute significantly to a higher effective cost being associated with such an approach.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.